So with Rice Tea now done, it’s time to start on my next project. It’s a piece of software this time; one which aims to bring GIS to the masses.
The idea is this: you’re a high school kid, or a university kid, or a worker in an office – and you need to produce a map. If you’re not in a field that’s familiar with geomatics software, what are you going to use? Photoshop. The Gimp. MS Paint. A screendump of Google Earth.
And your map will still look shitty. It won’t have a North Arrow, a legend, or a map border. You won’t be able to combine datasets, or plot on XY data. That’s where my software comes in: it gives an easy way to create maps, for non-GIS people.
The focus will be on making map-making easy and accessible to audiences, much in the same way that Excel has made tabulating data accessible to audiences. That’s where it differentiates itself from other free products such as the excellent MapMaker and GRASS.
The program will be both free as in speech, and free as in beer.
Comments
4 responses to “Bringing GIS to the masses.”
Great idea, good luck with your software!
Dude…this is so awesome!!!! Details?!?!?!?
Thanks guys!
I’ve started working on drafts of how I want it to look like and behave. It’s going to be super-simple; nowhere near the functionality of ArcGIS or anything a pro would need. Buuuuut it’ll be something for teens/uni-students to use.
This was going to be my Masters project, but now that that looks less and less likely to happen ($$$), I might as well do it out here and give it away. I needed a project to work on anyways.
Sounds like a great idea Julien. Good luck and please keep us posted on the progress.